eerily
English
Etymology
From eerie + -ly. Compare Old English earglīċe, earhlīċe (“in a cowardly manner, timidly, fearfully”).
Pronunciation
Adverb
eerily (comparative more eerily, superlative most eerily)
- In an eerie manner.
- 1847 October 16, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter IX, in Jane Eyre. […], volume III, London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC, page 244:
- And it was the voice of a human being—a known, loved, well-remembered voice—that of Edward Fairfax Rochester; and it spoke in pain and woe—wildly, eerily, urgently.
- 2005, Annabelle du Fouet, “The murky world from whence it all came” (chapter 2), in Weather Balloons Make Rotten Sex Toys, Ellora's Cave, →ISBN, page 37:
- Within a short time, the area became overcrowded with visiting kinksters and the original dungeons were torn down, replaced by resplendent palaces of kinkiness that soared into the sky.
I can’t help but notice at this point that the story begins to sound eerily like the development of Las Vegas. My brother Merle used to love going out there years ago, to frequent the smaller and older casinos. He became furious when developers tore them down to build newer and bigger ones.
- 2006 September 11, Sheryl Gay Stolberg, “Bush Mourns 9/11 at Ground Zero as N.Y. Remembers”, in New York Times[1]:
- A woman whose fiancé died on Sept. 11, Maria Barreto-Mojica, said she noticed that something about yesterday had seemed eerily familiar. “I looked at the sky this morning. It was so blue, just the same as it was that morning,” said Ms. Barreto-Mojica, 48, who was to marry fire lieutenant Dennis Mojica.
Synonyms
Translations
In an eerie manner
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